CHAPTER VIII--SURVIVALS
At breakfast Sir Nathaniel noticed that Adam was put out about something,but he said nothing. The lesson of silence is better remembered in agethan in youth. When they were both in the study, where Sir Nathanielfollowed him, Adam at once began to tell his companion of what hadhappened. Sir Nathaniel looked graver and graver as the narrationproceeded, and when Adam had stopped he remained silent for severalminutes, before speaking.
"This is very grave. I have not formed any opinion yet; but it seems tome at first impression that this is worse than anything I had expected."
"Why, sir?" said Adam. "Is the killing of a mongoose--no matter bywhom--so serious a thing as all that?"
His companion smoked on quietly for quite another few minutes before hespoke.
"When I have properly thought it over I may moderate my opinion, but inthe meantime it seems to me that there is something dreadful behind allthis--something that may affect all our lives--that may mean the issue oflife or death to any of us."
Adam sat up quickly.
"Do tell me, sir, what is in your mind--if, of course, you have noobjection, or do not think it better to withhold it."
"I have no objection, Adam--in fact, if I had, I should have to overcomeit. I fear there can be no more reserved thoughts between us."
"Indeed, sir, that sounds serious, worse than serious!"
"Adam, I greatly fear that the time has come for us--for you and me, atall events--to speak out plainly to one another. Does not there seemsomething very mysterious about this?"
"I have thought so, sir, all along. The only difficulty one has is whatone is to think and where to begin."
"Let us begin with what you have told me. First take the conduct of themongoose. He was quiet, even friendly and affectionate with you. Heonly attacked the snakes, which is, after all, his business in life."
"That is so!"
"Then we must try to find some reason why he attacked Lady Arabella."
"May it not be that a mongoose may have merely the instinct to attack,that nature does not allow or provide him with the fine reasoning powersto discriminate who he is to attack?"
"Of course that may be so. But, on the other hand, should we not satisfyourselves why he does wish to attack anything? If for centuries, thisparticular animal is known to attack only one kind of other animal, arewe not justified in assuming that when one of them attacks a hithertounclassed animal, he recognises in that animal some quality which it hasin common with the hereditary enemy?"
"That is a good argument, sir," Adam went on, "but a dangerous one. Ifwe followed it out, it would lead us to believe that Lady Arabella is asnake."
"We must be sure, before going to such an end, that there is no point asyet unconsidered which would account for the unknown thing which puzzlesus."
"In what way?"
"Well, suppose the instinct works on some physical basis--for instance,smell. If there were anything in recent juxtaposition to the attackedwhich would carry the scent, surely that would supply the missing cause."
"Of course!" Adam spoke with conviction.
"Now, from what you tell me, the negro had just come from the directionof Diana's Grove, carrying the dead snakes which the mongoose had killedthe previous morning. Might not the scent have been carried that way?"
"Of course it might, and probably was. I never thought of that. Isthere any possible way of guessing approximately how long a scent willremain? You see, this is a natural scent, and may derive from a placewhere it has been effective for thousands of years. Then, does a scentof any kind carry with it any form or quality of another kind, eithergood or evil? I ask you because one ancient name of the house lived inby the lady who was attacked by the mongoose was 'The Lair of the WhiteWorm.' If any of these things be so, our difficulties have multipliedindefinitely. They may even change in kind. We may get into moralentanglements; before we know it, we may be in the midst of a strugglebetween good and evil."
Sir Nathaniel smiled gravely.
"With regard to the first question--so far as I know, there are no fixedperiods for which a scent may be active--I think we may take it that thatperiod does not run into thousands of years. As to whether any moralchange accompanies a physical one, I can only say that I have met noproof of the fact. At the same time, we must remember that 'good' and'evil' are terms so wide as to take in the whole scheme of creation, andall that is implied by them and by their mutual action and reaction.Generally, I would say that in the scheme of a First Cause anything ispossible. So long as the inherent forces or tendencies of any one thingare veiled from us we must expect mystery."
"There is one other question on which I should like to ask your opinion.Suppose that there are any permanent forces appertaining to the past,what we may call 'survivals,' do these belong to good as well as to evil?For instance, if the scent of the primaeval monster can so remain inproportion to the original strength, can the same be true of things ofgood import?"
Sir Nathaniel thought for a while before he answered.
"We must be careful not to confuse the physical and the moral. I can seethat already you have switched on the moral entirely, so perhaps we hadbetter follow it up first. On the side of the moral, we have certainjustification for belief in the utterances of revealed religion. Forinstance, 'the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much'is altogether for good. We have nothing of a similar kind on the side ofevil. But if we accept this dictum we need have no more fear of'mysteries': these become thenceforth merely obstacles."
Adam suddenly changed to another phase of the subject.
"And now, sir, may I turn for a few minutes to purely practical things,or rather to matters of historical fact?"
Sir Nathaniel bowed acquiescence.
"We have already spoken of the history, so far as it is known, of some ofthe places round us--'Castra Regis,' 'Diana's Grove,' and 'The Lair ofthe White Worm.' I would like to ask if there is anything notnecessarily of evil import about any of the places?"
"Which?" asked Sir Nathaniel shrewdly.
"Well, for instance, this house and Mercy Farm?"
"Here we turn," said Sir Nathaniel, "to the other side, the light side ofthings. Let us take Mercy Farm first. When Augustine was sent by PopeGregory to Christianise England, in the time of the Romans, he wasreceived and protected by Ethelbert, King of Kent, whose wife, daughterof Charibert, King of Paris, was a Christian, and did much for Augustine.She founded a nunnery in memory of Columba, which was named _Sedesmisericordioe_, the House of Mercy, and, as the region was Mercian, thetwo names became involved. As Columba is the Latin for dove, the dovebecame a sort of signification of the nunnery. She seized on the ideaand made the newly-founded nunnery a house of doves. Someone sent her afreshly-discovered dove, a sort of carrier, but which had in the whitefeathers of its head and neck the form of a religious cowl. The nunneryflourished for more than a century, when, in the time of Penda, who wasthe reactionary of heathendom, it fell into decay. In the meantime thedoves, protected by religious feeling, had increased mightily, and wereknown in all Catholic communities. When King Offa ruled in Mercia, abouta hundred and fifty years later, he restored Christianity, and under itsprotection the nunnery of St. Columba was restored and its dovesflourished again. In process of time this religious house again fellinto desuetude; but before it disappeared it had achieved a great namefor good works, and in especial for the piety of its members. If deedsand prayers and hopes and earnest thinking leave anywhere any moraleffect, Mercy Farm and all around it have almost the right to beconsidered holy ground."
"Thank you, sir," said Adam earnestly, and was silent. Sir Nathanielunderstood.
After lunch that day, Adam casually asked Sir Nathaniel to come for awalk with him. The keen-witted old diplomatist guessed that there mustbe some motive behind the suggestion, and he at once agreed.
As soon as they were free from observation, Adam began.
"I am afraid,
sir, that there is more going on in this neighbourhood thanmost people imagine. I was out this morning, and on the edge of thesmall wood, I came upon the body of a child by the roadside. At first, Ithought she was dead, and while examining her, I noticed on her neck somemarks that looked like those of teeth."
"Some wild dog, perhaps?" put in Sir Nathaniel.
"Possibly, sir, though I think not--but listen to the rest of my news. Iglanced around, and to my surprise, I noticed something white movingamong the trees. I placed the child down carefully, and followed, but Icould not find any further traces. So I returned to the child andresumed my examination, and, to my delight, I discovered that she wasstill alive. I chafed her hands and gradually she revived, but to mydisappointment she remembered nothing--except that something had crept upquietly from behind, and had gripped her round the throat. Then,apparently, she fainted."
"Gripped her round the throat! Then it cannot have been a dog."
"No, sir, that is my difficulty, and explains why I brought you out here,where we cannot possibly be overheard. You have noticed, of course, thepeculiar sinuous way in which Lady Arabella moves--well, I feel certainthat the white thing that I saw in the wood was the mistress of Diana'sGrove!"
"Good God, boy, be careful what you say."
"Yes, sir, I fully realise the gravity of my accusation, but I feelconvinced that the marks on the child's throat were human--and made by awoman."
Adam's companion remained silent for some time, deep in thought.
"Adam, my boy," he said at last, "this matter appears to me to be farmore serious even than you think. It forces me to break confidence withmy old friend, your uncle--but, in order to spare him, I must do so. Forsome time now, things have been happening in this district that have beenworrying him dreadfully--several people have disappeared, without leavingthe slightest trace; a dead child was found by the roadside, with novisible or ascertainable cause of death--sheep and other animals havebeen found in the fields, bleeding from open wounds. There have beenother matters--many of them apparently trivial in themselves. Somesinister influence has been at work, and I admit that I have suspectedLady Arabella--that is why I questioned you so closely about the mongooseand its strange attack upon Lady Arabella. You will think it strangethat I should suspect the mistress of Diana's Grove, a beautiful woman ofaristocratic birth. Let me explain--the family seat is near my ownplace, Doom Tower, and at one time I knew the family well. When still ayoung girl, Lady Arabella wandered into a small wood near her home, anddid not return. She was found unconscious and in a high fever--thedoctor said that she had received a poisonous bite, and the girl being ata delicate and critical age, the result was serious--so much so that shewas not expected to recover. A great London physician came down butcould do nothing--indeed, he said that the girl would not survive thenight. All hope had been abandoned, when, to everyone's surprise, LadyArabella made a sudden and startling recovery. Within a couple of daysshe was going about as usual! But to the horror of her people, shedeveloped a terrible craving for cruelty, maiming and injuring birds andsmall animals--even killing them. This was put down to a nervousdisturbance due to her age, and it was hoped that her marriage to CaptainMarch would put this right. However, it was not a happy marriage, andeventually her husband was found shot through the head. I have alwayssuspected suicide, though no pistol was found near the body. He may havediscovered something--God knows what!--so possibly Lady Arabella mayherself have killed him. Putting together many small matters that havecome to my knowledge, I have come to the conclusion that the foul WhiteWorm obtained control of her body, just as her soul was leaving itsearthly tenement--that would explain the sudden revival of energy, thestrange and inexplicable craving for maiming and killing, as well as manyother matters with which I need not trouble you now, Adam. As I saidjust now, God alone knows what poor Captain March discovered--it musthave been something too ghastly for human endurance, if my theory iscorrect that the once beautiful human body of Lady Arabella is under thecontrol of this ghastly White Worm."
Adam nodded.
"But what can we do, sir--it seems a most difficult problem."
"We can do nothing, my boy--that is the important part of it. It wouldbe impossible to take action--all we can do is to keep careful watch,especially as regards Lady Arabella, and be ready to act, promptly anddecisively, if the opportunity occurs."
Adam agreed, and the two men returned to Lesser Hill.